6/4/11 Farmhaus

Kevin and I visited Farmhaus in June 2011. Yes, that was eons ago. This blog got put on the back burner as life got hectic, so now I've got a tremendous backlog of fabulous restaurants to blog about.

Farmhaus has a small but interesting menu. The dishes are on the smaller side, but not quite tapas-sized. We shared two dishes and then each had separate entrees. Farmhaus's menu is consistently changing in small ways, but you'll always find a few favorites still there if you make a return trip.

Kevin started off with a Bell's Oberson and I had a cocktail. Both were delicious and went great with our meals.

We shared the conch fritters, which came to the table piping hot and served with a roasted corn, jalapeño, and sriracha mayonnaise. These things are basically glorified hush puppies, but they were damn good. Light and fluffy, with a good amount of spiciness.

We then skipped to our main entrees. We both went with seafood, which I believe Farmhaus is especially known for. I ordered the blackened fluke with spoonbread and braised collard greens. The fluke was perfectly cooked - flaky and moist. The spoonbread was the perfect accompaniment and the braised collard greens were bizarre and wonderful. If I had to describe them, I would say they tasted exactly like a campfire. The amount of smoke they put into the greens really knocked my socks off. They were very unusual and I couldn't stop eating them.

Kevin's main entree was the escolar with blue prawns and grilled asparagus. I only had a bite or two, but it was delicious. Kevin enjoyed trying to suck the head out of the prawn, which was a new experience for him haha.

We were brought our second shared plate after our entrees. Kevin is a huge pork belly fan, so we had to go with the breakfast plate, which a mainstay on Farmhaus's menu. The dish consists of corn flour blinis, whipped maple butter, one sausage link, berkshire pork belly, and a fresh farm egg. This dish was delicious, and we were each fighting each other for the last bites.

We decided to go with the most adventurous dessert - berry panna cotta, fresh strawberries, angel food cake, and basil ice cream. The panna cotta was the perfect consistency and the angel food cake was moist and delicious. We were not quite prepared for the basil ice cream. It was very aggressive. I think I enjoyed it more than Kevin, but neither of us was crazy about it. I got what they were going for and really appreciated how unique the dessert was, but it was not completely harmonious for me.

Overall, this was a memorable evening. Farmhaus definitely earned its spot in our personal list of our  Top 5 Best St. Louis Meals. We would love to go back again, perhaps in the winter, when the menu has a whole new spin.

Since I gave the last review a letter grade, I suppose I will continue to do so. Farmhaus is a firm A, and I believe that with a little better ordering, it could be an A+. This is a very small restaurant and we had great service throughout the evening. It's pretty laid back, not at all pretentious.

Farmhaus
3257 Ivanhoe Ave
St. Louis, MO 63139
www.farmhausrestaurant.com
314.647.3800

5/13/11 - Mosaic

To celebrate our "sort-of" anniversary, Kevin and I dined at Mosaic in downtown St. Louis Friday night. I read mixed reviews on Urbanspoon, but overall we very much enjoyed our dining experience. We agreed that we would go back but try all new dishes on our return trip.

We started out ordering drinks. Unfortunately I don't remember their names, and the drink menu is not online. Kevin ordered a drink that the waiter described as "the original mojito, without all the simple syrup to weaken it." He enjoyed it. Unfortunately, my drink was not as successful. While the premise sounded good - vodka, fresh strawberries, a splash of Grand Marnier... the execution was lacking. First impression, to be blunt: the drink looked like vomit. The strawberries had been muddled and they made the whole drink murky and kind of disgusting looking. The taste was OK, but nothing exceptional. I didn't feel a need to order another one as we ate our meal.

We ordered:

Ahi Tartare $10

fresh tuna cubes, marinated cucumber, wasabi paint, mango caviar, tender mache, wonton crisps

I don't recall seeing any mache on the plate, but this was a really good first dish. The tuna tasted fresh and bright, and the wonton crisps were tasty. I only had two small complaints. The wasabi paint was good, but there wasn't nearly enough of it for us to get a taste with every bite. Also, there weren't enough of the wonton crisps... we were served three and really needed four to six. But we were happy to spoon up the remaining tuna, and Kevin even scooped some onto a potato chip, figured it couldn't be too much different from the wontons. Yep, we're totally classy people.

Mosaic Pot Sticker $8.5

suckling pig, shaved celery, thai peanut sauce

Kevin pronounced that these potstickers were "very good," and they were, but I felt like I could make them at home using frozen Trader Joe's pot stickers. The shaved celery acted as a nice palate refresher before our next dishes, but overall, this dish felt pretty pedestrian. The thai peanut sauce was tasty, but overpowered the filling. Overall, so-so.

Limoncello Mussels $10

1/2 pound Prince Edward Island mussels, lemongrass infused coconut broth, micro basil, grilled garlic ciabatta

Neither of us had ever had mussels before, so this was probably our biggest gamble of the evening. The broth was delicious, and we wished that we had been given more than two pieces of bread with which to soak it up. The mussels had good flavor and were served with cherry tomatoes and micro basil, which I felt both were used successfully in the dish. There were a lot of mussels for the two of us to split. I was slightly anxious going in that the plates were going to be very, very small, but that didn't turn out to be the case.

Rain Crow Farms Pork Tenderloin $10

confit potato & quail egg salad, spiced popcorn, maple-cider reduction

When we first cut into the tenderloin we were both rather anxious - it looked overcooked and dry. But thankfully it was anything but dry. The maple-cider reduction made me think of breakfast, which I didn't think melded that well with the potato salad. While both elements were great, I tended to eat them separately. The spiced popcorn was really just a garnish, but it had great flavor, especially with the maple-cider reduction. It would have been nice if we would have been given steak knives for this dish, but our butter knives sufficed.

Truffled Frites $6

white truffle oil, shaved parmesan, smoked garlic aioli

Potato chips. Yep, we totally ordered potato chips with this meal. They were darn good potato chips too, although probably still not good enough to warrant a $6 price tag. I personally couldn't taste any of the white truffle oil, but the chips were great nonetheless. Our server stated while delivering the chips that "these are the reason I have a gym membership." The parmesan was a nice bonus, and the smoked garlic aioli was addicting. Unfortunately, the aioli kind of depressed me, because I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that I was DIPPING POTATO CHIPS IN MAYONNAISE. I would never think to do that on my own, and even if I did, I would think I would need to be hidden at home in sweatpants, not dressed up in a trendy restaurant. I didn't like what they did to my psyche. Despite that, we managed to polish off almost all of them.

Chocolate Pot of Cream $7

callebaut chocolate, grand marnier creme

This was a tiny dessert for $7, but it was a damn tasty one. Kevin at first pronounced it dry, but he came around. I could have probably eaten five of them. Yummmm. Anything light and airy and chocolaty is all right by me. I bought some Callebaut chocolate at Whole Foods this weekend, so I fully intend of making a Mexican Pot De Creme as well as some chocolate souffles, both of which I hope will be cheaper, larger and even tastier.

Overall, I would give this meal an A-. We've already got our eyes on the dishes we want to try for next time. The prices were about right for a trendy downtown restaurant. We got to try a lot of different, interesting dishes, and we left full but not uncomfortably so. Some reviewers found the place to be pretentious and said that they didn't want their dishes to be explained to them. Our waiter and the other servers that brought out dishes to us simply identified what was on the plates - no instructions were given nor needed. The restaurant states that their dishes are served "market style," meaning the food is prepared and delivered immediately with no preference to hot or cold dishes. Our first two dishes came out extremely fast, and we were worried that we were being rushed out of there. However, the next dishes came out at a more measured pace, and our server never rushed us. He was around when he needed to be, and our water glasses never went empty. Our bill was $70 before tax and tip.

Mosaic

1001 Washington Ave.

St. Louis, MO 63101

www.mosaictapas.com

314.621.6001